At the peak of his political career, Ceausescu (does the name ring a bell?) decided that the name of his country - Rumania - should be spelt differently - Romania, to make sure everybody realised the Romanian people was the result of the blending of two civilizations: the Roman and the Dacian (the Roman Empire invaded Dacia at the beginning of the second century A.D. and the following centuries witnessed the emergence of the Romanian people and the Romanian language, a process similar to what happened in England after the Norman Conquest). Only nobody knew at the time that the gypsies in the country and elsewhere would get a politically correct name - the Roma/Romani - and thus cause an embarrassing (at least for the true-born Romanians) confusion: nowadays many people believe that Romania is the country of the gypsies! Given the troubles many Roma people tend to get into wherever they go, Britain included, and hence their bad reputation, a Romanian MP recently proposed a bill that was supposed to draw the line between the Romanians proper and the Roma ethic group by giving back the latter its former name. The bill was voted against, in spite of the growing pressure from a great number of Romanians who were scandalised both by the evil doings of some of the Roma people who travelled to the West and by the anathema cast on the whole Romanian nation just because of a linguistic confusion. Although officially the issue seems to have been solved, controversy among the ordinary people is still going on.
Petru Iamandi (Rumania/Romania)
Sunday, 20 February 2011
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Petru:It seems that history is not your strongest point.The KINGDOM OF ROMANIA was established in 1866 on the foundation of the UNITED ROMANIAN PRINCIPALITIES.Ceausescu had nothing to do with it.Rumania was and still is the way the British are spelling the name of the country in English, which is based on the French spelling ROUMANIE.For a very short period in the 50s the Soviets imposed the spelling Rumania(they didn"t like the similarity with the ROMANO CATHOLIC CHURCH) and this is why the official spelling had to be REVERSED to its original form.Only ignorants had and still have any doubt about the Latin character of the Romanians.Best regards!
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I had vaguely thought that the Rumania/Roumania spellings often used in the UK were derived from the GERMAN. It's true that many of the out-of-tune buskers you see here are from ROMANIA (or BULGARIA). When I was growing up near London in the 'fifties, there many gypsies. A number of the adults were keen to say '...most of them are not really Gypsies; they're IRISH tinkers'. Whether this observation was made from knowledge or prejudice, I can't say. The 'scholarly' view is that Gypsies originated in INDIA, despite the name derived from EGYPT. They were supposed to have entered Europe via PERSIA (Iran) a millennium ago. I wonder where today's generation think they come from?
ReplyDeleteThose of today's generation who watched "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" will now believe for certain that Gypsies come from Ireland and tarmac drives. They may wonder, momentarily, why the series' title has a Greek association (extra laughs?), but will certainly have no idea of the Romany culture across many European countries.
ReplyDeleteThree years ago I spent a week in a small coastal town in Portugal in an old town apartment refurbished by a young British couple. Our neighbours, an extended family of two grandmothers in black with long grey braided hair, sat outside in the cool of the narrow street and looked after babies and children. Mothers obviously lived in the kitchen. Fathers came in and out. They amazed us with their volubility and frequent emotional outbursts, sometimes erupting into chair throwing and table overturning. This, while still holding babies. I had assumed they were Portuguese, but the permanent group of old men at the nearby cafe told us they were Gypsies and rolled their eyes. The line of stalls on the Promenade selling clothes and beach towels was all owned by Gypsies and we were advised not to engage with them too long, or haggle. Give them a wide berth in the evenings. The fear of Gypsies was put into us! The TV series has done the same for uncritical viewers I suspect.